Tuesday's defeat to Norwich has reopened a familiar debate on Teesside - are Middlesbrough slow-starters in the Championship?

Garry Monk's side barely landed a punch during a tepid first half at the Riverside, despite dominating the possession and territory from the outset.

It's something the Boro boss has alluded to already this season. Five weeks ago, after leaving Nottingham Forest empty-handed, Monk claimed his side were being too generous towards their opponents.

"We do need to start games quicker," Monk said. "We’ve been too slow and given the opposition maybe a foothold or more confidence than we need to.

"So we need to start better, but that will come. These are normal things."

Since then, Boro have played six matches and have scored just twice in the first-half of those fixtures.

But looking at the glass half-full, Boro have earned eight points in that time, including spirited draws at Aston Villa and Fulham, and have conceded just four goals.

Quite how the statistics are viewed depends on what side of the fence you sit; but there's an all-round acceptance that Boro have not started quickly in matches so far this season.

So how does Boro's record compare to other sides gunning for promotion, and is there another factor that we haven't taken into consideration?

We take a look:

Have Boro been slow-starters this season?

It's ironic that Boro's quickest start this season probably came at Villa Park - for the first three minutes, at least.

In that short spell, Boro looked the better side against Aston Villa and came close to opening the scoring as Ben Gibson's header from a corner had keeper Sam Johnstone sprawling.

Then came Adama Traore's red card, and the rest is history. With a numerical disadvantage, Boro had to abandon Plan 'A' and dig deep defensively to irk out a point.

But that incident aside, it's hard to think of a game when Boro have flown out of the traps. Instead they have tended to feel their way into matches; patiently probing, building a solid platform and looking to exert a stranglehold through possession.

Boro haven't scored early, but haven't conceded many in the early knockings either. Only QPR have found the net against Boro inside the opening 10 minutes of a match.

Let's delve a little deeper.

In the first 20 minutes of their nine league matches to date, Boro have scored two goals - Rudy Gestede against Sheffield United and Britt Assombalonga at Bolton.

That's fairly average, when looking at the rest of the Championship clubs. Nine teams have scored more often than Boro in the first 20 minutes.

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Aston Villa are the quickest out of the traps, scoring five goals in the early stage of games. In terms of the current top six, Leeds and Sheffield United are the only sides to have scored more often than Boro in the first 20 minutes, while Wolves and Ipswich are both level on two goals.

Two of the bottom three - Bolton and Birmingham - are yet to score early, and so are under-achieving Reading and Sheffield Wednesday, two of last season's play-off quartet.

But does it all mean anything?

Curiously, table-topping Cardiff have only scored once in the first 20 minutes, while Preston are yet to strike within the same timeframe. If judging a 'start' in terms of goals scored early, Boro's tally is probably par for the course.

There isn't a direct correlation between how many goals a team scores early and where they are in the league table - for now at least.

Surrendering the initiative

If scoring early in games isn't necessarily the root of Boro's problem, what is?

There's little doubt that Boro have been a second-half team under Monk this season. Seven of their 10 goals this season have come after the break - and that perhaps fuels the 'slow-starters' perception.

In Boro's two defeats prior to Norwich - against Wolves and Nottingham Forest - the Teessiders' stodgy start allowed the opposition to get on top of them early on, and subsequently win the midfield battle.

It was a similar scenario in the home draw with Preston, with Alex Neil's side looking the far more dangerous outfit on the day.

While Boro didn't concede early (the opening 10 minutes) in any of those matches, the damage was ultimately done; the initiative was surrendered. That's an intriguing point.

Only Preston boast a better record at the back than Boro this season. Indeed, Monk's men have kept five clean sheets in nine and have the second-best defensive statistics in the Championship.

When under the cosh, especially early on, Boro's defence have managed to stem the tide. But looking a bit closer at the statistics, a worrying trend comes into view.

No side in the top half of the Championship have conceded the first goal in matches more often than Boro.

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In fact, only six teams in the entire division have shipped the first goal more often - and that includes bottom three Bolton, Birmingham and Sunderland. That, in essence, is the problem.

Boro have shown plenty of character already in 2017/18 to claw points back from losing positions. They twice came from behind to beat QPR, and showed mental grit to recover from Fulham's 86th-minute opener to go up the other end and equalise.

But they're giving themselves a mountain to climb in matches. By conceding first, Boro are always having to carry out rescue missions.

For the most part, Boro have managed to cope with that brief - aided by Monk's talented forward options and enviable squad depth.

However, by taking such a risk, there are always going to be occasions when Boro can't retrieve a situation - as the gmae with Norwich proved on Tuesday.

If Boro are to shake off their 'slow-starter' perception, they need to stop conceding first in matches. That appears to be Monk's biggest cause for concern so far.

What are the reasons behind it?

That's the big question, and one Monk will be mulling over at Rockliffe this week and over the international break.

How can Boro impose themselves on the opposition quicker? How can they unnerve sides in the opening stages? How can they seize the initiative and squeeze the life out of their opponents from the off?

Questions have been raised over the last 48 hours over Boro's intensity in the warm-up, something Bernie Slaven wasn't convinced about in this week's Gazette column .

I'd probably back him on that. At Fulham on Saturday, I watched the players going through their drills - and commented on the intensity.

The players seemed to show 100% focus, carrying out their pre-game instructions at full-tilt. Just ask deputy keeper Dimi Konstantopoulos, who had to try and save some of the explosive efforts in the shooting drill.

So is Boro's tendency to concede first down to one factor? Probably not - Boro are still a new side getting to grips with a new manager, a new coaching team and most importantly a new philosophy. It was always going to take time.

Middlesbrough's manager Garry Monk and his coaching staff

Being 'hard to beat' looks to be an element of Monk's utopia, but not the primary objective. Instead, he wants Boro to play football the right way, a possession-based game which eventually breaks down an opponent through attrition.

If they do that right, the outcome will inevitably be the three points.

That style - a more patient approach being drip-fed from the top - may be one of the reasons why Boro seem to start slowly.

Given Boro have scored four goals after the 70th minute in matches this season, Monk may well feel that patient approach is paying off.

But critics will claim Boro have more chance of catching a side on the hop and scoring a goal at the beginning of matches, rather than towards the end when opposition teams are entrenched in their defensive position and growing in their belief of nicking a result.

It's probably somewhere in the middle; patience is a virtue, but Boro can't be overly-complacent.

Their quality should shine through more often than not, but that doesn't mean they can coast along waiting for someone to do something special in the final third of a game.

How can Boro buck the trend?

As Tuesday night showed, nothing is certain in the Championship. Boro went into the game having not lose a second-tier game at the Riverside on an evening since November 2011 - and look what happened.

Records come and go, trends are reversed. It's probably only a matter of time before Boro do hit the ground running in a game, score early and then cruise to victory.

But that needs to become the norm, rather than the exception.

In truth, that was pretty much the case at Bolton - albeit the first goal didn't come until the 13th minute.

For Boro and Monk, they must use that Norwich game as a lesson. Most teams who come to the Riverside this season are going to be ultra-defensive, put 10 men behind the ball, and go from there.

It's a frustrating tactic to watch for any home supporter, and no doubt even more frustrating to play against.

In the aftermath of the Norwich defeat, Monk was asked how to combat against that kind of opponent in this division. His answer was two-fold.

"There's two things, he said. "First, we need to stop making mistakes and gifting the other team a goal. That will put teams in a position where they can't sit as deep as Norwich did with as many players behind the ball.

"The other bit is to work on the training ground, so when we face those types of blocks, we do better with our final delivery and with the chances we do create."

Conceding the first goal has proven to be Boro's Achilles' heel this season. No side in the top half of the Championship have done so more often.

And rectifying that will inevitably be Monk's biggest priority over the international break, following Saturday's home game with Brentford.

If he can find the solution to that, added to an already-solid defensive platform and a squad bursting with attacking talent, Boro can expect to rise up the standings.